“And after this, nearly all our work will have to do with the sea,” said the theatrical man. “I want to depict it in all its phases; showing it calm, and during a storm, the delights of it, as well as the perils of the deep.”
Before leaving Flagstaff it was decided to give a few exhibitions of some of the moving pictures, so that the residents there, and a number of the cowboys and Indians who had taken part in the plays, might see how they looked on the screen. A suitable building was obtained, and it was crowded at every performance.
The Indians were at first frightened, thinking it was some new and powerful kind of “medicine” that might have a bad effect on them. With one accord, when the film the boys had taken, showing the charge of the soldiers on the Moquis, was put on, the redmen rushed from the building. And it was some time before they could be induced to return.
“Say, there’s my uncle, as plain as anything!” exclaimed Joe, when the excitement had calmed down, and the reel was run over again. “There’s Sergeant Duncan, close to Captain Marsh!” and he indicated where the trooper was riding beside the commander of the cavalry.
“That’s right,” agreed Blake, as the pictures flickered over the screen, the figures being almost life size. “And he looks like you, too.”
“I wonder if my father looks like that?” said Joe, softly.
There were busy days ahead of them all now, and there was much work to be done in transporting all the “properties” to the coast, and arranging to move the picture outfit, the cameras and the entire company. The boys had little leisure, but Joe managed to get a letter off to the government lighthouse board, asking for news of his father, Nathaniel Duncan.
In reply he got a communication stating that a Mr. Duncan was stationed as assistant keeper at a light near San Diego, and not far from Point Loma.
“That’s where we want to head for, then,” said Joe, as he talked the matter over with his chum. “I wonder if that will suit Mr. Ringold?”
It did, as the theatrical manager stated, when the subject was broached to him. Accordingly arrangements were made to ship everything there.